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By Derrik J. LangASSOCIATED PRESS • Thursday June 13, 2013 8:46 AM

LOS ANGELES — It’s a video game more than seven years in the making.

Square Enix revealed this week during Sony’s presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo
that
Final Fantasy XV would finally see the light of day. The long-running role-playing series’
latest entry — previously known as
Final Fantasy Versus XIII — was first revealed at the expo back in 2006.

What is taking so long?

Tetsuya Nomura, Square Enix’s chief creative head, said technology had to catch up with his
imagination.

While the title was originally intended for the current-generation PlayStation 3,
Final Fantasy XV will be available for Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 4 as well as
Microsoft’s Xbox One.

“Several times, there were changes in engines that we used,” the Japanese game designer said
through a translator on Tuesday at Square Enix’s expo booth.

“To make what I imagined in my mind on the current generation of consoles was very challenging.
What you saw yesterday in the trailer was very difficult to create in the current generation of
consoles.”

Nomura declined to elaborate on how the game will be played, but footage shown at the expo
suggests that
Final Fantasy XV will swap the series’ signature turn-based combat for quicker action.

“The game was announced seven years ago,” Nomura said, “but the concept has never changed.”

The original
Final Fantasy was released in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System and has spawned
many sequels and spinoffs.